Sisters
by KroganVanguard
Summary: Liara meets her half-hanar sister. A sequel to my earlier story, 'Fathers'. Established MShep/Liara. Please review!


_A sequel to my other MShep/Liara story, 'Fathers'. Inspired by a KMeme prompt which in turn was inspired by a particular piece of dialogue from BSN about Liara meeting her half-hanar sister. Reviews are my addiction of choice, so help me out there. Hope you enjoy. _

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**Sisters**

"I don't know about this dear."

She allows the worry she's feeling to colour her tone, and he squeezes her hand with his in response. They walk through the Citadel, even more crowded with refugees now, the corridors thronging with members of species from all over Citadel space. There went a pair of turians with bandages and crutches, probably evacuated out of Palaven, then a human couple, talking softly about how to get some extra rations for their children. Liara made a quick note on her omni-tool to get them some help through her network of contacts. Around every corner was a reminder that the whole galaxy was at war, and she knew it wore on Shepard. To the rest of the world he presented a mask of confidence and strength, but she knew what it cost him, and how worried he was in private. Yet he was here with her, by her side for this dinner, instead of running around gathering war resources or on some other vital mission. That told its own story.

"You'll be fine. Aethyta has been setting this up for some time, and we have a few days now to rest and recover. This is the perfect time to do this, sunshine."

She lets his voice flow over her, relaxing into its warmth and support. They were walking towards a restaurant in Tayseri Ward, one Aethyta had chosen when Liara had suggested this dinner. After that initial meeting, she had put her network to use to find her half-sister, only to see that she was already on the Citadel.

"Maybe she won't come?" Liara suggested, glancing around at a pair of giggling asari maidens who looked ready to come up to Shepard and ask for his autograph. Or maybe a threesome. A glare and a quick biotic flare sent them scurrying in another direction. Her oblivious partner never even noticed. Sometimes being with the most famous soldier in the galaxy had its occasional downside.

"Aethya will make her come. Your dad is pretty strong-willed when she wants to be." They're almost at the restaurant now, her omni-tool beeps at her. He stops, turns to face her and envelops her in a hug. She falls into it, feeling the hairs on his arms tickle against the scales of her skin.

"Relax, and enjoy yourself, Doc." He leans back as he speaks, till green eyes crinkling with affection meet hers, and then leans into capture her lips in a kiss. He intends for it to be short, but she kisses back aggressively, searching for his tongue with hers, letting the world recede in while they are in this cocoon together.

"Mmm, getting hot and heavy in public? I like it. Good to see you took my advice about being a little less…civilized."

Liara can't stop herself from springing back and blushing at Aethyta's words, compounded by the fact that Shepard is laughing at her. Just a little bit, and trying to bottle it, but definitely laughing at her. She feels like she's half her age and been caught on a first date, not a maiden well out of her first blush of youth and with a partner who she's seriously considering bonding with.

"Thanks, Aethyta. Your advice is, as ever, invaluable." Shepard recovers first, and his tone is dry, buying her the time she needs to recover her composure. Aethyta grins at them both, pleased far too much with herself, and he gestures her forward and tucks his hands back into Liara's as they follow her father into the restaurant.

"Best asari food on the Citadel. I used to come here with the girls from my merc unit, back in the day. Still the same chef. Good old Lora. Used to make a great breakfast too, if you know what I mean." Aethyta's statement doesn't make Liara stumble, or even blush this time. She just looks at Shepard and rolls her eyes. This is what her father is like. He smiles back at her, and she soaks in the normality of it all. Their relationship has been all saving-the-galaxy and rescue missions, occasional nights snatched when they could. Now on the _Normandy_ they've managed to build a semblance of real relationship. Shared a bathroom. She stole his shirt this morning when she couldn't find hers. If Wrex wants a cabin with windows that badly, he should put up with Shepard's caustic morning temper, before he's had his first coffee…not to mention his habit of playing with her scalp crest at completely inappropriate times. Like when she's threatening to flay people alive. Now they were having a family dinner. Almost domestic. Almost like any other couple.

It's busy, but not overcrowded, catering to a cosmopolitan crowd for dinner. The hubbub of voices rises over whatever music is playing softly in the background, drowning it out. Liara checks her omni-tool, makes sure the intel is up to date and a back-up team is in place should anything go wrong. She's not taking chances, not with this particular dinner, though Shepard by himself is probably more capable than three of her teams put together…and her and Shepard working together probably could take down anything short of a Reaper appearing in the middle of their dinner.

Liara shakes herself out of her reverie as Aethyta leads them to an empty table in the back corner, with four places set. She looks around carefully, but even though the restaurant is busy with many patrons, she can't spot anyone making their way towards the table. A spot of disappointment blooms inside her. Maybe her sister isn't coming after all. Maybe she had no interest in meeting Liara. Almost telepathically, Shepard caresses her shoulder, and they sit side by side, with Aethyta next to Liara. Drinks are delivered almost instantly as they sit.

"Don't worry kiddo, your sister is definitely coming. I threatened to come and stay at her house for a month if she didn't." Aethyta smiles wryly at Liara, and she feels herself lose some of the tension that had wound itself tightly around her. It isn't gone completely, but she does feel like she can breathe a bit easier now.

"So, Shepard, my daughter might be an information broker, but I have to find things out the hard way. What about you? Got any family?"

Liara feels her stomach plunge at her father's question, but before she can say anything, Shepard squeezes her hand again. She turns to look at him, his chocolate brown hair and square chin, green eyes still and deep as the oceans of Thessia above a too-large nose and striking cheekbones. He's not handsome by human standards, apparently, but he still fascinates her just as much as he did they day they met.

"I lost my family on Mindoir, back when I was a teenager. They were killed during a Batarian slaving raid." His voice is deep and even, and this time she's squeezing his hand, letting him draw upon her for support.

"Oh Shepard, I'm sorry. I knew you were from Mindoir, during the raid, but I never realised…" For once, Aethyta's voice is without sass, genuine in its condolences.

"It's alright. History now." He takes a quick swallow from the wine glass in front of him, and Liara rubs her thumb against back of his wrist. His past isn't the minefield it once was, and she knows that he sometimes has to tread equally carefully around her memories of Benezia. They're both damaged goods in that department. She'll have to do better for her daughters. Their daughters.

"Ah, here she comes." Aethyta's eyes light up with obvious love as she looks over Liara's shoulder, and she feels a momentary twinge that her father never had the opportunity to look at her like that while she was growing up.

Liara twists in her chair to assess the sole asari picking her way through the maze of tables, her skin a shade of purple-blue, with plain white vertical markings on her face that contrast beautifully against the darker skin. She knows from her intel reports that her sister is a couple of centuries older than her, approaching the start of the matron stage of her life. She looks like a younger, more willowy version of her father, those same light brown eyes, even that same semi-knowing smile. Or was it more of a smirk? And then she's reached the table, giving Aethyta a hug and kiss on the cheek, and Liara is standing, fidgeting on her feet with nerves, and then she's greeting Shepard, a firm handshake and then…

"This one is pleased to meet you, Liara T'Soni. This one is called Merela, and is half-hanar." The handshake is cool and firm, and then she finds herself being pulled into a quick hug and kiss on the cheek.

"But…it doesn't work like that!" Liara is semi-mortified that she's blurted out the first response that's popped into her head from the strange introduction, as if she's some poor young maiden explaining asari reproduction to humans who've never met one before.

"Ha, sister. Sorry, just teasing. Mother told me all about you. Wanted to see if you would headbutt me or something." Merela's tone is teasing, and a warm smile takes any sting out of her words.

"Oh I might just still." Liara replies drily, cottoning on as they take their seats. Merela greets Aethyta with the closeness of a mother-daughter bond that is centuries old, and for a moment Liara feels a pang for her mother. The resemblance between her father and sister is even more pronounced as they sit next to each other, and even runs to some similar mannerisms and movements.

"Careful with that bloodrage, you said it would be nice to meet your sister." Aethyta joins in, smiling at them both in turn.

"I don't know, father. I'd hazard she's less like a hanar and more like you." Merela smirks, raises her glass to acknowledge the point and Aethyta chuckles.

"It's true, I suppose. I love swimming, and still wish I could make my skin grow different colours, but that's about all I have left as a connection to my hanar heritage. Anyway, the famous Commander Shepard, it's great to meet you. Unfortunately, my bondmate couldn't make it. He's STG and a big fan of yours, but unfortunately got recalled to Sur'Kesh."

She finds Shepard's callused hand under the table, weaves her smaller fingers through his. In his own way, he'd been nervous about meeting her family, though he'd never admit to it.

"Liara mentioned it. It's great to meet you too."

"I'm a fan too, of course. I was a commando trainer back home till a couple of years ago. We made studying your assault on Saren's forces at the Citadel a mandatory part of the training." Liara knew her sister was being modest. Merela had been a former commando-unit commanding officer before she was tapped up to go into train the next generation of asari commandos, and had once been flagged as a possible Spectre candidate. A real family of overachievers, hers was. Now she was part of the asari military detachment on the Citadel, more concerned with strategic-level decisions.

"And didn't I tell you he's got a great ass? Your sister has good taste. My influence, definitely."

She locks eyes with Merela, and they both roll theirs in unison. Trust Aethyta.

"Parents! At least you didn't have to deal with this one all the time." Merela jerks a thumb at her mother, who looks a little smug. "I was dating a krogan for a while, about a century ago. They got into a headbutting contest when I brought him home."

"Well, Shepard headbutted a krogan clan leader back on Tuchanka. Maybe after dinner?" Shepard turns to her in surprise, and Liara shrugs her shoulders at him. He might not have told her everything, but she is a very good information broker after all.

"No thanks, I like to leave the headbutting for the 2nd time I meet the family, doing it at once seems so…presumptuous." Shepard's voice is mild, but the tone is playful. She knows he's enjoying the banter, the easy familiarity that seems to have sprung up between them.

The rest of the dinner passes with the same vibe, and they leave late, after most of the restaurant is empty. She's exchanged contact details with Merela and promised to stay in touch and talk, rather than just keep tabs on her via her network. Mother and daughter have decided to make a night of it, and move onto a bar or a club, but she and Shepard are walking back to the _Normandy_, his arm warm around her waist.

"She reminded me of my sister, you know. That same sharp tongue, the way she had of putting people at ease." Shepard has that same cloudiness in eyes as he always does when he talks about Mindoir. She's seen photos of his sister before, as part of family portraits or even just the two of them, and has a name- Lisa. She had the same emerald green eyes, the same rich and dark hair, and the same athletic build.

"Oh Josh." She stops them next to a railing overlooking promenade, pulls him into her arms. He leans into the hug, and they just stay there a moment, as she drinks in his scent of slight sweat and soap, the feeling of his broad muscular back under her fingers, his own fingers splayed across her back.

"She was going to leave Mindoir in a month. Finish her schooling and join the Navy. She was 18. Had already signed the paperwork." He keeps his voice low, but she can still hear something crack in the distance, some part of the wall he has built around his past coming down for her. "One fucking month."

She raises her eyes to catch his, but they are looking well over her and into the horizon. Into the past. She has left those reports unread. Some things needed to learned like this. She plants a soft kiss on his cheek.

"She'd be proud of you now, Josh. Of what you're doing. Of the uniform you serve in." He isn't religious, but she knows he is driven by thoughts of his family. Wanting to what would make them proud. Still. She knows it's how he maintains his sense of morality in the face of what he has survived, and the storm yet to come. How he hasn't succumbed to the lure of the purely pragmatic option, to become some kind of renegade for whom the ends justified the means.

"I hope so. I know she would've liked Merela. Liked you. Maybe even Aethyta." He looks down, and those eyes aren't quite as misted over any more, and there's even a semblance of a grin lurking there somewhere.

"My father would try the patience of a saint." She ruffles his hair with her hands, loving that exotic texture between her fingers, and that finally does raise a grin out of him.

"Won't argue with you on that, sunshine." He plants a quick kiss on her lips, and she chases his for a longer effort a second time around before he reluctantly breaks away again.

"Much as I'd love to stand around here making out like a teenager, we have to go." He links hands with her again as they move towards the lift to the docking bay of the _Normandy_. "We have a galaxy to save, for our little blue babies." Liara squeezes his hand. They do have a future to preserve, and for the best of reasons. They walk out towards it, together.


End file.
